Workforce Training and Education

The region's workforce is balanced among the manufacturing, services, wholesale/retail trade, and government sectors. This diversity provides a stable economic environment. As a right-to-work state, Mississippi maintains excellent labor/management relations and has less than a 5 percent union membership.

Southeast Mississippi has a proven track record of engaging in successful educational partnerships through a network of community colleges that supports a skilled and motivated workforce. Mississippi's workforce team can design a customized workforce screening and training program to meet the needs of new and existing industry.

Education Network

Understanding that workforce is a key driver in a company's decision to locate, Mississippi has made significant investments in workforce education to enhance the skills of potential employees. The training programs offered throughout the community colleges and universities in Southeast Mississippi align with the advanced technologies companies utilize in their production process. This educational network works seamlessly together to provide a qualified workforce for new and existing industry.

Community and Junior Colleges
The community colleges in the region work toward the common goal of providing superior training programs to advance the skill sets of potential employees in the region. Through progressive partnerships, the community colleges within Southeast Mississippi offer basic and advanced work skills, pre-employment training, retraining, short-term training and rapid response training. The core mission of the Mississippi community college system is to provide career and technical programs preparing students for employment. They also provide academic programs that parallel the first two years of university programs.

Universities
Mississippi has nationally recognized research programs housed at universities across the state. These universities are engaged in basic and applied research which have created successful partnerships with companies like Boeing, GE Aviation and Toyota. The mission of the universities is to provide enhanced expertise within a specific area of focus with the end goal of creating a superior workforce pipeline.